Feature: Which Upcoming PS4 Exclusives Will Release in 2019?

With a large number of upcoming PlayStation 4 exclusives already announced, Sony may not have the element of surprise on its side anymore, but it sure has a huge catalogue of hotly anticipated titles on the horizon. The question is: how many of those games will actually release in 2019? With the Japanese giant keeping a lid on release dates these days, it can be hard to predict when its titles will actually deploy – but last year it dated both God of War and Detroit: Become Human within a couple of months of them arriving in stores. Could history repeat itself?

London Studio’s gangster PSVR exclusive has been taking a bit of a hiatus of late, with the title missing in action for most of 2018, outside of the odd convention demo. Sony’s virtual reality headset found a new lease of life over the holidays, though, with great pricing and killer software prompting many to take the plunge. The company needs to keep that stream of top-notch content coming, and considering it’s been over two years since PlayStation VR Worlds released, we have to imagine that this gritty trip through Britain’s seedy underbelly will be ready at some point this year.

Will Blood & Truth Release in 2019? Lookin’ likely, guv!

Sony’s first-party output has been good for a decade now, but there was a period during the PlayStation 3’s latter years where it was pumping out some incredible indie-esque titles that really pushed the envelope creatively. It’s stepped away from a lot of that, with small publishers like Annapurna Interactive picking up the reins, but games like Concrete Genie prove that it still has an eye for a unique experience. Effectively a painting puzzler where you create animated murals, this sophomore effort from PixelOpus is sure to be an HDR showpiece – and considering it’s already slated for the Spring, we’re certain it’ll be out this year.

Will Concrete Genie Release in 2019? Beat the devil out of your magical paintbrush, the outlook is good.

Announced alongside God of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man, it feels like Days Gone has been in development for eternity. To be fair, that’s not entirely Sony Bend’s fault: we reckon the apocalyptic open worlder is virtually finished, and scheduling has forced the studio to keep Deacon St. John’s adventure under wraps. Originally due out last year, the title was delayed due to Red Dead Redemption 2. It was then scheduled for February, but a hellish landscape pushed it all the way back into April. Will it make its current date? We reckon it has to. The good news is that the developer has had a ton of time to make sure the final project is polished to perfection.

Will Days Gone Release in 2019? Only the undead can stop it from deploying on 26th April.

Dreams is one of the PlayStation exclusives we’re most looking forward to, and it’s nice to see that its beta is actually out after two years of false promises. This has clearly been a challenging project for Media Molecule, but it must be remembered that there’s no blueprint for the type of title it’s building here – and the Guildford-based developer isn’t even that big to begin with. We reckon the beta means that the project is nearing completion now, and while there’ll clearly still be things to fix, tweak, and improve based on player feedback, we reckon it’ll be ready for release some time this year.

Will Dreams Release in 2019? We’d bet a box of custard creams on it.

Crazed creator Hideo Kojima has said that Death Stranding will release before the Olympics, which are scheduled to take place in 2020. There’s a lot of chatter that it will be ready this year, but its E3 2018 gameplay trailer still looked early to us. We believe all of the speculation about Kojima Productions being ahead of schedule and the title coming together quicker than anticipated, but we just can’t see this one dropping until 2020. It’s a new IP from a new developer, and you’ve got to remember that when the title was announced in 2016, the studio didn’t even have an engine back then. It’s since found a partner in Guerrilla Games, but we’d be shocked if this came out over the next 12 months.

Will Death Stranding Release in 2019? We reckon Kojima will keep the craziness on ice another year.

What the hell is Erica? That’s what you’re all saying, right? We played this PS4 exclusive at an event a couple of years ago, but very little has been said about it since. The title – which can be played with a smartphone or DualShock 4 controller – is effectively an FMV adventure game, where you make choices to manipulate the story. It’s surprisingly tactile and it looked really polished when we tested it out in 2016. Assuming that Sony will continue its PlayLink push this year, we have to imagine that this will be a part of the lineup.

Will Erica Release in 2019? Yes, the FMV adventure has got to be close to completion now.

Everybody loves Everybody’s Golf – the clue’s in the name, after all. Following its nifty PS4 entry, Clap Hanz is once again collaborating with Japan Studio on a PSVR adaptation of the happiest sports series ever created. The virtual reality format means that it’s probably going to be quite different to the title from two years ago, with a new motion control hitting mechanic replacing the triple-click format of before. Still, the veteran developer has been making these titles for over two decades now, and it’s already been confirmed for a 2019 release.

Will Everybody’s Golf VR Release in 2019? Putt money on it.

It’s been a long time since inFAMOUS: Second Son and inFAMOUS: First Light, but as developers consistently like to remind us, making new intellectual properties is tough. We’d expected Ghost of Tsushima to be extremely polished at E3 2018, then, but it actually still looked kind of rough – impressive, there’s no doubt about that, but early. As such, we’d be surprised if this love letter to samurai cinema made it out in 2019 – there’s just no real rush, is there? There is some speculation that, along with Death Stranding and The Last of Us: Part II, this could be a cross-gen title. Stranger things have happened – but we think the craziest of all would be this coming out within the next 12 months.

It’s the most anticipated game in the PS4 portfolio by some margin, but Sony’s not going to pressure Naughty Dog to put out The Last of Us: Part II this year. There’s been some chatter that the California-based studio is targeting 2019, and we can believe it – but realistically, is it going to make it? We just can’t see it. The vertical slice shown at E3 2018 was seriously impressive, and to achieve that level of quality across an entire campaign is going to take serious effort from the studio. Can it do it? We’re talking about one of the best developers in the world here, so of course it can – we just don’t expect it to be in a rush. Cross-gen with the PS5, then? Possibly.

Will The Last of Us: Part II Release in 2019? Y’know Ellie, we really are looking at 2020.

Just like the sun rises and falls, Sony San Diego releases a new edition of MLB The Show every year to coincide with the new baseball season. With free agent Bryce Harper on the cover – his team selection seems set to overlap with the new game’s marketing campaign – and a 26th March release date already confirmed, there’s not much more to say here, is there? It’d take a pretty big baseball bat to prevent this from releasing in 2019.

Will MLB The Show 19 Release in 2019? Did you really need to ask?

Which upcoming PS4 exclusives do you think will release in 2019? Which of Sony’s titles are you most looking forward to? Tell us the damn date in the comments section below.